Prisoners of the Heart
by DiabolicalxDarling
Summary: Gregor has really got Sam wrapped around his finger. Sam has really fallen hard for Gregor. Danny has really gotten pissed with the whole situation. But when things in the Ghost Zone and Amity Park start to lose control, and everyone seems to be constantly one step ahead of him, Danny needs to figure out quick who's breaking the rules- before it's too late.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys! My name is Amanda, your diabolically darling author back after a roughly year- long hiatus from Fanfic. This is my first story I've really come up with in that year, be it fanfic or just writing in general. Things get busy, inspiration crumbles, it gets hard, what can I say. I really like my concept for this one though, and hopefully you guys do to. This is my first fanfic for Danny Phantom, my first fanfic for any TV show actually, and I must say it's a lot different from writing for books. It's also my first fic without an OC, which is soooo strange for me. **

**THANK YOU: Sonochu for helping me get my ideas straight for this story and pre- reading before I posted and giving me some additional feedback!**

**THANK YOU: to my wonderful boyfriend Matt for listening to me rant for hours to get this one chapter right as well as helping me choose just about every word on this page, dig me out of the holes I kept writing myself into, and reading it multiple times over for me to make sure I had it down as perfect as possible! You really are the best!**

**So ****without further ado, here is _Prisoners of the Heart._**

**_XOXO_ Enjoy :D**

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Prisoners of the Heart

Chapter 1

"I really hate him." Danny muttered to Tucker, crunching his paper cup in his fist as he stared at Sam and Gregor across the Nasty Burger. "He's a goth. _He's _an_ ultra recyclo- vegetarian_. He's the foreign kid with the stupid accent. He does every fucking little thing right and now he's with _her._"

"Well dude, they do have more in common than you and her. Maybe you're taking this too personally. He could be good for her. She's happy." the techno- geek responded evenly. He never shifted his eyes from his PDA, merely lifting his arms to keep Danny's spilled soda away from it.

"She was happy before. With us. Me." Danny said, giving up his burning glare after Sam noticed it.

"You know that's not what I meant."

"I just don't get it. How does this just happen?"

"How many years have you wasted chasing Paulina? And put off this thing with Sam?" Tucker finally looked up from his PDA to his friend, with minimal pity.

"I... don't know." His face fell as he said the words.

"Exactly. What do you expect from her? Just wait it out. I doubt it'll last all that long."

"You had better be right about that."

It had happened too fast for him to accept. Gregor had been in town a matter of days. Just days. And now Danny never saw Sam. She was always with him. Sam refused to accept his calls, respond to his texts, or just in general be around him if she was with or around Gregor. But the bastard never went _away_. Gregor was always there, keeping her from him, and he couldn't figure out why- or what exactly Gregor had done to be able to take his place at her side so quickly.

"So what do you think of the test on Thursday?" Tucker asked, changing the subject and turning to his friend.

There was a loud crash in the back of the fast food joint, causing everyone in the place to jump. Hazy smoke filtered through the swinging door and over the order counter as frantic employees ran out, jumping the counter and out the door. A few seconds later three ghosts floated through the smoke and into view, causing the shocked patrons to finally jump to their feet as it all fit together what was happening.

"I'll get back to you on that test." Danny said, looking around to see where he would have a place to hide and switch to his alter- ego.

"Do your thing, man. I'll get people out of here."

Danny looked over his shoulder real quick to see Gregor taking a sharp right at the exit of the Nasty Burger and running until he was out of sight, leaving Sam at their table alone. A ghost followed him and the others out of the building, chasing multiple teens down the street and eventually gone into the neighborhood as well. He stored that into his memory to remember to go after it later, and ducked into the bathroom to change.

Tucker ran up to Sam, no standing alone at the table assessing her surroundings. "Did he really just bail on you?"

"Can't complain about that right now. That's probably better for this situation. Where's Danny?"

"He's looking for some place to go ghost."

Danny phased up through the floor next to his friends, looking at his two opponents. "Did he really just bail on you like that?" he said, glancing back at Sam. He couldn't help feeling a little bit better knowing that one ghost had chased Gregor and the others out of the restaurant; he deserved that for leaving Sam in danger.

"I'm about to bail on you guys if you don't drop it!" she snapped at them. "Just take care of this mess so I can go find him."

Danny laughed and looked at the two ghosts in front of him, watching him playfully. This destruction was just a game to them. "Really Sam? They're just ectopusses. I can't believe Gregor bailed on you in fear of these guys."

Danny began his fight with the ectopusses when they noticed they finally had his attention. Fast frontal assaults, loud shots of ecto- energy, and powerful punches back and forth in the few second window. Tables cracked under either party's weight as they were pushed and tossed around the room. Chairs and windows were destroyed with blasts of ectoplasm.

"Aside from flying debris, these guys are harmless. Gregor needs to man up and stand by your side and protect you, Sam." Danny said, turning his attention from the ectopusses for a moment.

"He's been here for barely a few _weeks_, what do you expect, Danny?" Sam shot back. "I doubt he noticed I didn't bolt out of here in the chaos!"

"That's exactly my point." Danny muttered, rolling his eyes.

"That's a low blow, even for you, Danny. You know why he responded the way he did. You need to quit being a jerk."

"Right after he does!" Danny's attention left the ectopusses then, and he turned fully to Sam. "If he can be a jerk and leave his girlfriend in danger, then I can be a jerk and give him a hard time about it!"

"First of all, I'm _not _his girlfriend. Second of all, he wasn't trying to be a jerk, he was scared shitless! And third, none of this gives _you_ the right to be a jerk!" Sam yelled, causing Danny to stop dead in his tracks. Not his girlfriend? Not _trying_ to be a jerk? What?

"Does it matter if he was trying to be a jerk? He Just left you here in the middle of all this!"

"What does that have to do with you at all?!"

"Does that matter?"

"Yes!"

By now Danny and Sam had both forgotten about the ghosts in the place, and Tucker sitting there watching it all- including the ectopusses making a hasty retreat out of the building after their friend. "Hey guys... the ectopusses got away." he interrupted, cautiously tapping them both on the shoulder.

"Great. Just great. Now I'm gonna have to go out and look for them tonight." Danny snapped, looking around the destroyed building.

"Well if you could have just minded your own business they wouldn't have gotten away!" Sam said beneath her breath.

"I'm really just not in the mood for this, Sam." Danny pinched the bridge of his nose to try and reign in his anger. He had blown up at Sam. But she had yelled at him just as much. She just didn't get it. How could she just accept that this guy left her in the middle of so much danger? That's not showing her that he cares. It was being a pussy- footed wimp. She deserved better than that. "I'm out of here."

"Good riddance." Sam said as she walked out to search for Gregor.

Tucker looked back and forth in the opposing directions his friends went, torn between who to follow. Sam didn't understand Danny's perspective. Danny had no right to be a jerk to Sam. "Thanks for just leaving me, guys..." he muttered to himself before walking out alone.

As if having to help hunt ghosts wasn't dramatic enough.

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**And so concludes the first chapter! If you didn't pick up, this (in my head) cuts off in the middle of _Double Cross my Heart_ in the series (Season 2 Episode 16) and it's going to go off on my own little tangent of a story from there. Gregor is legitimately Gregor (because I know that question WILL come up). It should streamline almost perfectly out of the canon. The only minor tweaks to the characters are their language, because few to no teenagers talk as innocently as they do in the show- it WAS a children's show after all- Gregor being Gregor, and a few connections between pre-existing characters I created. You'll have to read to see. **

**Thank you all (anyone) for reading, I would so insanely appreciate any reviews, messages, input, critique, etc. from all of you! I take time to respond to every message, review, favorite, and follows that I get, and I love to hear any kind of feedback. I'm looking for some people to bounce ideas with for this, so if anyone is willing to help with that, it'd be awesome. Right now it's just me and my boyfriend Matt cramming our ideas together to make this work and Sonochu pre-reading to make sure I didn't miss anything being the biased- author. **

**Again, thank you all for reading, and I hope to hear from you! Don't hold back, I've never been so insanely nervous to post something on here- I feel like I might puke! Gah I'm so excited. I can't wait to see how this goes! For the last time, thank you!**

**XOXO, Amanda**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey there fanfiction readers! Sorry it's taken me so mind- numbingly long to update. I've never gone this long between updates before. Wow. I'm so sorry any loyal readers who come back to this, Matt showed me Hexxit and my life kind of stopped entirely. And then Matt never had the time to work with me, which was stupid. The moment I got his feedback I came on here to update. Please accept my profuse apologies. This wasn't cool. **

**Anyways here's the second chapter! Kinda slow, in my opinion, but I didn't wanna cram too many things into one chapter. Sorry if it's kinda boring. **

**Thank you sooo much to: morgan. .75, DannySamLover20, Zinnia99, and anjtheartistphantom stalks you for your reviews and subscriptions! They made my heart smile! That was intentionally cheesy.  
**

**So time for the chapter, no?**

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Prisoners of the Heart

Chapter 2

Danny flew over Amity Park, absently watching for signs of the ectopusses around town. His minded wandered often- to Sam. Had she found Gregor? Had he apologized? Had she stood up for herself against his cowardly actions? Had she just accepted that he would probably never stand up for her the way he should if he was to be her boyfriend? Did Sam even realize what this was doing to Danny? If she knew, did she care?

Did she really care? Sam had no idea why Danny was so upset over Gregor. He had never even given Gregor a chance. They hadn't said more than a dozen words to each other in the week or so since Gregor had arrived. And yet he was being a royal asshat any moment he could, and didn't seem to care whatsoever about what impact his words might have on herself or Gregor. It infuriated her to the point she could hardly focus on finding Gregor to explain to him that ghosts often frequented Amity park (that was an understatement). She had left that little doozy of a detail out up until now. On second thought, maybe that was a bad idea. Having this explanation upcoming and Danny's antics in the Nasty Burger distracted her to the point she had no idea where she even was in town anymore. She had managed to get herself completely lost while she thought about Danny and Gregor. She turned around and started working her way backwards, looking for some part of town that she knew.

Tucker contemplated what he could do to try and make Sam and Danny understand each others' perspectives. It was difficult being caught in the middle, more so now than usual. It was something he was relatively used to, but Gregor coming in between them not only forced their tension to a completely different level that they were in no way ready or willing to face but also gave him a third friend to think about in the situation. He, unlike Danny, had spent time with Gregor. He knew Gregor was a cool guy. He was a little unorthodox of course, coming from a different country and all, but he was a good guy. He didn't deserve the way Danny was treating him. It was true that he shouldn't have just bailed on Sam. But what else could he have done when his entire worldly perspective was shattered so forcefully in front of him? Ghosts existed- and were dangerous. He and Sam hadn't found the opportune moment to explain it all to him yet, but any moment before then would have been better than that. And Sam had to have _some_ idea of why Danny was acting the way he was. She just didn't want to admit it to herself. She had to know that deep down it hurt Danny to see her with someone else. Accepting that fact was beyond her capabilities though. They were both too stubborn for their own good. She was too stubborn to accept that she had feelings for Danny- and that she knew that he had feelings for her. The same went for Danny (at least, before he did, until he realized he had missed his opportunity and now completely understood that he wanted her to be his alone) except he probably didn't know that she reciprocated his feelings. Before he truly believed that Gregor was a douche. Now Gregor wasn't so much an actual douche, he was just a douche for the fact that he had Sam. Douche by default, in a way. And with all this stupid tension, Tucker was left in the middle, trying to keep his friends together. But right now all he could do was look for Gregor.

Gregor had run fast out of the Nasty Burger, following the crowds away from the monsters- ghosts. No questions asked, no hesitations. Just get out of there. He didn't pay much attention to which way he went either, just scattering like everyone else once they were outside. No one had bothered to tell him that ghosts existed. Why had they any reason to? Up until now they seemed impossible, outside of horror movies. Terrifying heart stopping scream fests- but only enjoyable on the screen, not played out in real life. Ghosts were much worse in real life. After a few blocks he stopped to catch his breath, the adrenaline leaving his system. He took in his surroundings, trying to figure out where he was and what on earth he should do now. Look for Sam- who he had completely ditched at the Nasty Burger. Go home and try and wrap his brain around the events of today. Kill a few more hours around town and try and simply forget what had happened. All seemed like good ideas, maybe except for seeing Sam. Would she be mad that he had left her without so much as a glance back?

He kept walking down the street he was on, thinking. It felt like it shouldn't have been such a difficult decision, but it was. It was all just way too much. Ghosts! They could be anywhere- and he'd have no idea. Right behind him, for all he knew, following him, and he was powerless to do anything to protect himself if the decided to take him on for sport. Gregor felt a wave of paranoia wash over him and he quickly looked back. Nothing- that he could see, at least. It would take him a long time to get rid of the shaky feeling that someone was watching him.

It would be wise for him to pay attention to that uneasy feeling though, as the ectopusses followed Gregor down the street. The boy looked familiar to them- they had seen him somewhere, in the ghost zone, they just had to pinpoint where they'd seen his face. And that was something they were bound to do.

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**I know, the length is pathetic for how long it's taken me to update. I'm so sorry. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed, I hope to hear from some people, and I look forward to speaking with you all!**

**XOXO,  
Amanda**


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